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INTRODUCTION

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PARTICLE SEPARATION

The bonds of love between a mother and her daughter can endure the impossible - the Great Depression, racism, war, imprisonment, and even an atomic bomb. Maintaining family harmony would test their bonds more than any of those events.

“But isn’t love enough?”

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Despite entering the world as a Japanese American girl at the height of the Depression, Chiyo’s childhood was filled with adventure, wonder, and a sense of family belonging. Even surrounded by her five siblings, Chiyo always felt that her mother Toshi’s love was unique and that it would connect them together, forever.

Wit and persistence open many opportunities for Chiyo. Those same traits backfire on her when her ambitious plans to reunite the family create a deeper divide. Once the nucleus has been fissured, will it ever be the same?

But in truth, it wasn’t just about Chiyo. Toshi was dedicated to something else. Something she would never know.

Unlike most immigrants, Toshi’s American Dream was not about striking it rich. It was about building lives for her future generations of great-great-grandchildren and beyond. Her dream for them wasn’t just about financial comfort, it was about gaining the knowledge and power to be heard as Japanese Americans and women.

But every dream has a price. She and her husband send most of their children to Hiroshima just before Pearl Harbor, only to have the rest of the family taken to an incarceration camp in Idaho.

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IS LOVE ENOUGH

TO HOLD TOGETHER WHAT HAS BEEN LOST WHEN TRUST IS GONE?

Isn’t it good enough just to be alive, to be together again, to have successful lives? Can they put it all behind and just move on? Is moving on enough to make up for what was lost?

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KEY ELEMENTS

CONNECTION
FAMILY SECRETS
MUSIC

CONNECTION

While history, race, and gender set the stage, at the heart of the story are the seemingly unbreakable bonds between a girl and her mother. The biological bonds are indisputable at birth but weave tighter through their connected experiences.

FAMILY SECRETS

Particle Separation is not intended to be a history lesson, but an exploration into the side-effects of wanting to belong so intensely that we would bury the deeper truths to persevere. We convinced ourselves that if everything else was in place, the trauma and scars from the sacrifices made would somehow fade away.

Chiyo may never resolve her traumas, but maybe her persistence in pursuing the truth might save the next generations.

MUSIC

The music allows the characters to stretch outside of their traditional roles and elicit emotions never expressed. Pieces by Sondheim, Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Sir Elton, Cat Stevens, and more connect themes of love, hope, despair, devastation, and wonderment in ways that mesh with any era.

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